The Nintendo 64 Turned 20 Years Old!

An important milestone for Nintendo’s 64 bit console passed us by yesterday, the N64 turned 20!

We like to celebrate significant anniversaries for the consoles that have marked our gaming lives but we were a little distracted yesterday by some tiny, insignificant referendum that determined the downfall of the U.K. economy overnight… forgive me, no one came here for a lecture on politics.

That’s right, whilst we were playing god with the future of the United Kingdom, the Nintendo 64 turned a whopping 20 years old! Released in Japan on June 23rd 1996 the N64, as it became known, boasted an instantly recognisable design and was revered for its advanced 3D graphics engine.

Later variants came in a rainbow of colours

Part of what made the N64 unique was the way that games were developed to to work in unison with the controller that featured a rumble pack and central analogue thumbstick. The system spawned some classic games titles too. Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and of course the game that many of us lost days to, GoldenEye 007 – A four player first person shooter that proved highly addictive.

The N64 proved to be the last cartridge-based home console from the Japan gaming giants and came as a successor to the classic, 32 bit Super Nintendo. In turn the N64 made way for the Nintendo GameCube five years later.

About the author | Will Harrison

Founder of The Unheard Nerd. A husband and father of two girls, Will is a fan of Nerdcore Hip-Hop, a comics fiend, a podcast host and champion of independent nerd culture. | Follow will on twitter: @TheUnheardNerd